Scudery was standard-bearer; astounded that such fantastic beauties should have seduced knowledge as well as ignorance, and the court as well as the cit, and conjuring decent folks to suspend judgment for a while, and not condemn without a hearing _Sophonisbe, Cesar, Cleopdtre, Hercule, Marianne, Cleomedon,_ and so many other illustrious heroes who had charmed them on the stage." Corneille might have been satisfied; his adversaries themselves recognized his great popularity and success.
A singular mixture of haughtiness and timidity, of vigorous imagination and simplicity of judgment! It was by his triumphs that Corneille had become informed of his talents; but, when once aware, he had accepted the conviction thereof as that of those truths which one does not arrive at by one's self absolutely, without explanation, without modification.
"I know my worth, and well believe men's rede of it; I have no need of leagues, to make myself admired; Few voices may be raised for me, but none is hired; To swell th' applause my just ambition seeks no claque, Nor out of holes and corners hunts the hireling pack: Upon the boards, quite self-supported, mount my plays, And every one is free to censure or to praise; There, though no friends expound their views or preach my cause, It hath been many a time my lot to win applause; There, pleased with the success my modest merit won, With brilliant critics' laws I seek to dazzle none; To court and people both I give the same delight, Mine only partisans the verses that I write; To them alone I owe the credit of my pen, To my own self alone the fame I win of men; And if, when rivals meet, I claim equality, Methinks I do no wrong to whosoe'er it be." "Let him rise on the wings of composition," said La Bruyere, "and he is not below Augustus, Pompey, Nicodemus, Sertorius; he is a king and a great king; he is a politician, he is a philosopher." Modest and bashfnl in what concerns himself, when it has nothing to do with his works and his talents, Corneille, who does not disdain to receive a pension from Cardinal Richelieu, or, in writing to Scudery, to call him "your master and and mine," becomes quite another creature when he defends his genius: "Leaving full oft the earth, soon as he leaves the goal, With lofty flight he soars into the upper air, Looks down on envious men, and smiles at their despair." The contest was becoming fierce and bitter; much was written for and against the _Cid;_ the public remained faithful to it; the cardinal determined to submit it to the judgment of the Academy, thus exacting from that body an act of complaisance towards himself as well as an act of independence and authority in the teeth of predominant opinion.

At his instigation, Scudery wrote to the Academy to make them the judges in the dispute.

"The cardinal's desire was plain to see," says Pellisson; "but the most judicious amongst that body testified a great deal of repugnance to this design.

They said that the Academy, which was only in its cradle, ought not to incur odium by a judgment which might perhaps displease both parties, and which could not fail to cause umbrage to one at least, that is to say, to a great part of France; that they were scarcely tolerated, from the mere fancy which prevailed that they pretended to some authority over the French tongue; what would be the case if they proved to have exercised it in respect of a work which had pleased the majority and won the approbation of the people?
M.Corneille did not ask for this judgment, and, by the statutes of the Academy, they could only sit in judgment upon a work with the consent and at the entreaty of the author." Corneille did not facilitate the task of the Academicians: he excused himself modestly, protesting that such occupation was not worthy of such a body, that a mere piece (_un libelle_) did not deserve their judgment.

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